Napoleon Bonaparte - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Napoleon’s Education and Early Military Career Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. He was the second of eight surviving children born to Carlo Buonaparte (1746-1785), a lawyer, and Letizia Romalino Buonaparte (1750-1836). Although his parents were members of the minor Corsican nobility, the family was not wealthy. The year before Napoleon’s birth, France acquired Corsica from the city-state of Genoa, Italy. Napoleon later adopted a French spelling of his last name. Did You Know? In 1799, during Napoleon’s military campaign in Egypt, a French soldier named Pierre Francois Bouchard (1772-1832) discovered the Rosetta Stone. This artifact provided the key to cracking the code of Egyptian hieroglyphics, a written language that had been dead for almost 2,000 years.

As a boy, Napoleon attended school in mainland France, where he learned the French language, and went on to graduate from a French military academy in 1785. He then became a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment of the French army. The French Revolution began in 1789, and within three years revolutionaries had overthrown the monarchy and proclaimed a French republic. During the early years of the revolution, Napoleon was largely on leave from the military and home in Corsica, where he became affiliated with the Jacobins, a pro-democracy political group. In 1793, following a clash with the nationalist Corsican governor, Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807), the Bonaparte family fled their native island for mainland France, where Napoleon returned to military duty. In France, Napoleon became associated with Augustin Robespierre (1763-1794), the brother of revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), a Jacobin who was a key force behind the Reign of Terror (1793-1794), a period of violence against enemies of the revolution.

During this time, Napoleon was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the army. However, after Robespierre fell from power and was guillotined (along with Augustin) in July 1794, Napoleon was briefly put under house arrest for his ties to the brothers. In 1795, Napoleon helped suppress a royalist insurrection against the revolutionary government in Paris and was promoted to major general. Napoleon’s Rise to Power Since 1792, France’s revolutionary government had been engaged in military conflicts with various European nations. In 1796, Napoleon commanded a French army that defeated the larger armies of Austria, one of his country’s primary rivals, in a series of battles in Italy. In 1797, France and Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, resulting in territorial gains for the French. The following year, the Directory, the five-person group that had governed France since 1795, offered to let Napoleon lead an invasion of England. Napoleon determined that France’s naval forces were not yet ready to go up against the superior British Royal Navy. Instead, he proposed an invasion of Egypt in an effort to wipe out British trade routes with India.

Napoleon’s troops scored a victory against Egypt’s military rulers, the Mamluks, at the Battle of the Pyramids in July 1798; soon, however, his forces were stranded after his naval fleet was nearly decimated by the British at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. In early 1799, Napoleon’s army launched an invasion of Ottoman-ruled Syria, which ended with the failed siege of Acre, located in modern-day Israel. That summer, with the political situation in France marked by uncertainty, the ever-ambitious and cunning Napoleon opted to abandon his army in Egypt and return to France. The Coup of 18 Brumaire In November 1799, in an event known as the coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon was part of a group that successfully overthrew the French Directory. The Directory was replaced with a three-member Consulate, and Napoleon became first consul, making him France’s leading political figure. In June 1800, at the Battle of Marengo, Napoleon’s forces defeated one of France’s perennial enemies, the Austrians, and drove them out of Italy.

The victory helped cement Napoleon’s power as first consul. Additionally, with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, the war-weary British agreed to peace with the French (although the peace would only last for a year). Napoleon worked to restore stability to post-revolutionary France. He centralized the government; instituted reforms in such areas as banking and education; supported science and the arts; and sought to improve relations between his regime and the pope (who represented France’s main religion, Catholicism), which had suffered during the revolution. One of his most significant accomplishments was the Napoleonic Code, which streamlined the French legal system and continues to form the foundation of French civil law to this day. In 1802, a constitutional amendment made Napoleon first consul for life. Two years later, in 1804, he crowned himself emperor of France in a lavish ceremony at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Napoleon’s Marriages and Children In 1796, Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), a stylish widow six years his senior who had two teenage children.

More than a decade later, in 1809, after Napoleon had no offspring of his own with Josephine, he had their marriage annulled so he could find a new wife and produce an heir. In 1810, he wed Marie Louise (1791-1847), the daughter of the emperor of Austria. The following year, she gave birth to their son, Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (1811-1832), who became known as Napoleon II and was given the title king of Rome. In addition to his son with Marie Louise, Napoleon had several illegitimate children. The Reign of Napoleon I From 1803 to 1815, France was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, a series of major conflicts with various coalitions of European nations. In 1803, partly as a means to raise funds for future wars, Napoleon sold France’s Louisiana Territory in North America to the newly independent United States for $15 million, a transaction that later became known as the Louisiana Purchase . In October 1805, the British wiped out Napoleon’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar .

However, in December of that same year, Napoleon achieved what is considered to be one of his greatest victories at the Battle of Austerlitz, in which his army defeated the Austrians and Russians. The victory resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine. Beginning in 1806, Napoleon sought to wage large-scale economic warfare against Britain with the establishment of the so-called Continental System of European port blockades against British trade. In 1807, following Napoleon’s defeat of the Russians at Friedland in Prussia, Alexander I (1777-1825) was forced to sign a peace settlement, the Treaty of Tilsit. In 1809, the French defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram, resulting in further gains for Napoleon. During these years, Napoleon reestablished a French aristocracy (eliminated in the French Revolution) and began handing out titles of nobility to his loyal friends and family as his empire continued to expand across much of western and central continental Europe. Napoleon’s Downfall and First Abdication In 1810, Russia withdrew from the Continental System.

In retaliation, Napoleon led a massive army into Russia in the summer of 1812. Rather than engaging the French in a full-scale battle, the Russians adopted a strategy of retreating whenever Napoleon’s forces attempted to attack. As a result, Napoleon’s troops trekked deeper into Russia despite being ill-prepared for an extended campaign. In September, both sides suffered heavy casualties in the indecisive Battle of Borodino. Napoleon’s forces marched on to Moscow, only to discover almost the entire population evacuated. Retreating Russians set fires across the city in an effort to deprive enemy troops of supplies. After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving, exhausted army out of Moscow. During the disastrous retreat, his army suffered continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army. Of Napoleon’s 600,000 troops who began the campaign, only an estimated 100,000 made it out of Russia.

At the same time as the catastrophic Russian invasion, French forces were engaged in the Peninsular War (1808-1814), which resulted in the Spanish and Portuguese, with assistance from the British, driving the French from the Iberian Peninsula. This loss was followed in 1813 by the Battle of Leipzig , also known as the Battle of Nations, in which Napoleon’s forces were defeated by a coalition that included Austrian, Prussian, Russian and Swedish troops. Napoleon then retreated to France, and in March 1814 coalition forces captured Paris. On April 6, 1814, Napoleon, then in his mid-40s, was forced to abdicate the throne. With the Treaty of Fontainebleau, he was exiled to Elba, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. He was given sovereignty over the small island, while his wife and son went to Austria. Hundred Days Campaign and Battle of Waterloo On February 26, 1815, after less than a year in exile, Napoleon escaped Elba and sailed to the French mainland with a group of more than 1,000 supporters.

On March 20, he returned to Paris, where he was welcomed by cheering crowds. The new king, Louis XVIII (1755-1824), fled, and Napoleon began what came to be known as his Hundred Days campaign. Upon Napoleon’s return to France, a coalition of allies–the Austrians, British, Prussians and Russians–who considered the French emperor an enemy began to prepare for war. Napoleon raised a new army and planned to strike preemptively, defeating the allied forces one by one before they could launch a united attack against him. In June 1815, his forces invaded Belgium, where British and Prussian troops were stationed. On June 16, Napoleon’s troops defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny. However, two days later, on June 18, at the Battle of Waterloo near Brussels, the French were crushed by the British, with assistance from the Prussians. On June 22, 1815, Napoleon was once again forced to abdicate.

Napoleon’s Final Years In October 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the remote, British-held island of Saint Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean. He died there on May 5, 1821, at age 51, most likely from stomach cancer. (During his time in power, Napoleon often posed for paintings with his hand in his vest, leading to some speculation after his death that he had been plagued by stomach pain for years.) Napoleon was buried on the island despite his request to be laid to rest “on the banks of the Seine, among the French people I have loved so much.” In 1840, his remains were returned to France and entombed in a crypt at Les Invalides in Paris, where other French military leaders are interred. Tags This Week in History: Napoleon I born in Corsica in 1769 – World Book INK worldbookblog 1 Comment Napoleon I , also known as Napoleon Bonaparte, was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica on Aug. 15, 1769. Then, as now, Corsica was a part of France .

As a youth, Napoleon’s well-to-do parents sent him to a military school in France. In October 1785, he graduated from the elite military academy École Militaire in Paris , completing a two-year course in just one year. At age 16, he entered the French army as a second lieutenant. Napoleon’s skill, intelligence, and bravery earned him fast promotion. Napoleon returned to Corsica after the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789-1799). There, he joined the Jacobins , a radical group loosely dedicated to installing democracy in France. In early 1793, Napoleon rejoined the French army. In June, the Jacobins took control of the French government. By the end of the year, 24-year-old Napoleon was a brigadier general. At that time, France was at war with several European nations. Napoleon gained fame, and considerable power, for leading his troops to a number of key victories. In November 1799, Napoleon—seeing an opportunity amidst a weak, chaotic French government—seized power in a bold coup d’état. Napoleon became first consul—the head of a three-member Consulate.

In 1801 and 1802, treaties with Austria and the United Kingdom brought peace to Europe for the first time in 10 years. However, the peace did not last long, as fighting resumed in 1803. In 1804, Napoleon established the Code Civil, a law code that still forms the basis of French civil law. Later that year, he crowned himself emperor, and the civil laws became known as the Code Napoleon . From 1805 to 1809, Napoleon won a string of victories over the armies of Austria, Prussia , and Russia . The laundry list of victories gave names to now-famous Parisian avenues, boulevards, and train stations: Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Auerstadt, Friedland, and Wagram. After each victory, Napoleon enlarged his empire, adding parts of modern-day Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Slovenia. Napoleon had reached his peak. In 1808, fierce fighting erupted in Spain .

The Peninsular War, a grinding, bloody conflict, pitted French forces against the combined forces of the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain—recently a French ally. The war dragged on until 1813, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and ending in a bitter French defeat. In 1812, Napoleon led 600,000 troops in an invasion of Russia. That September, Napoleon’s army won a gruesome battle over the Russians at Borodino, and it occupied Moscow . The Russians refused to surrender, however. Lacking shelter and supplies to survive the harsh Russian winter, Napoleon’s army was forced to retreat. Starvation, cold, and Russian raids combined to decimate the French army as it pulled back. Just 100,00 returned to France. The Spanish and Russian campaigns had greatly reduced the numbers of the French army, yet Napoleon soldiered on. His troops fought a number of battles in Germany in 1813 before finally falling back to France, exhausted. By March 1814, the French army was so reduced it could not protect Paris, and the city fell to an alliance of enemies.

Napoleon was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, and France relinquished most of its empire. Undaunted, Napoleon escaped from exile and rallied yet another army in France, returning to power in March 1815. His longtime enemies—Austria, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom—grimly gathered forces again, determined to end the fighting once and for all. On June 18, 1815, the French and British armies clashed on the now famous field of Waterloo , a boggy stretch of ground south of Brussels . The fighting was intense and bloody. Late in the day, just as the French neared victory, thousands of Prussian troops arrived. The French army, exhausted and now badly outnumbered, collapsed. Napoleon retreated to Paris, where he gave up power for the final time on June 22. He was exiled again, this time to tiny St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. He died there on May 5, 1821.

Share this: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) Biography – Life of French Emperor House Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was a military general whose successes in the field eventually brought him the title of Emperor of France. Napoleon, who is usually known by his first name alone, is acknowledged as having greatly improved both organization and training in the military, as well as reforming the French education system. He was the sponsor of the Napoleonic Code, which remains the foundation of French civil law. Napoleon was twice captured by the British, eventually dying in exile on the Atlantic island of St. Helena. Childhood and Early Life Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, the capital of the island of Corsica, on August 15, 1769. He was the son of Carlo Buonaparte, a prominent lawyer who had at one time supported the Corsican nationalists in their resistance to the French occupation of the island, but had later pledged his allegiance to France. Carlo was then given a job as assessor of Ajaccio’s judicial district.

The income from this post brought him the means to send his two surviving sons, Napoleon and Joseph, to the College d’Autun in mainland France. Once there, Napoleon’s studies took him to Brienne, where he spent five years at its military college. After this, he went on to the Parisian military academy. Carlo, his father, died of stomach cancer in 1785, while Napoleon was studying at the academy. This event thrust upon his young son the responsibility of being head of his family. Napoleon graduated from the academy early and returned to Corsica the following year as a second lieutenant of artillery. Napoleon and Revolutionary France By this time, Napoleon had made the opposite philosophical choice of his father. He became a strong supporter of the Corsican resistance and an ally of Pasquale Paoli, who had once been Carlo’s associate. Although they possessed a formidable array of talents between them, the pair eventually quarreled. By the spring of 1793, when civil war broke out on the island, Napoleon had removed his family to the mainland of France. Once there, he decided to change his family’s name from the Italian Buonaparte to the French equivalent, Bonaparte.

Napoleon resumed his service with the French army. He served with his regiment beginning in June, 1793 at Nice. He showed strong sympathies with the popular leftist Jacobin movement that had grown out of the recent French Revolution. By this time France had been proclaimed a republic. 1793 also saw the execution of its last pre-revolutionary monarch, King Louis XVI. The almost constant turmoil and uncertainty in France at this time meant that able, ambitious leaders such as Napoleon had a chance to shine. Although the new republic was originally intended to overthrow the tyrannical rule of the French kings, in reality it simply swapped one tyrant for another. The dictatorial Committee of Public Safety, headed by Maximilien Robespierre, exercised almost total power over French citizens. This period, which was later to be dubbed the Reign of Terror, was responsible for the deaths of up to 40,000 people. Robesepierre was himself executed when the Jacobins were toppled in 1795. After this the Directory became the ruling organization for the next four years.

Rise to Army Commander Perhaps due to his status as a potential alternative center for the loyalty of the French people, Napoleon soon lost favor with Robespierre. This might have endangered his life had the Jacobins not fallen from power. Instead, in 1795, the Directory rewarded Napoleon for his efforts in defending the French government from counter-revolutionaries. He was quickly appointed to command the Army of the Interior, as well as being given an influential advisory role on military affairs. The following year France launched an attack on Austria. At this point Napoleon was given his preferred post as commander of the Army of Italy. This army was relatively weak, with a total strength of only 30,000. The troops were marred by poor morale and nutrition. Napoleon used his knowledge to restructure the army to the extent that it became immensely successful, winning many battles with Austria. This allowed the French Empire to expand substantially, and Napoleon himself to become seen as the country’s outstanding young commander. In 1796, Napoleon married Joséphine Tascher de La Pagerie, the widow of a general who had been sent to the guillotine by Robespierre in the days of the Reign of Terror.

He then had to deal with domestic incidents in which royalist elements within France wanted to restore the country’s monarchy. Next, Napoleon moved on to the Middle East. There his task was to take control of Egypt in order to weaken British influence and control in the region as well as causing disruption to its trading links with India. Failure and Rebirth Once in north Africa, Napoleon suffered one of his most humiliating defeats. At the beginning of August, 1798, at the Battle of the Nile, Napoleon saw his forces annihilated by the navy of British admiral, Horatio Nelson. This caused great damage to Napoleon’s reputation, and Britain made an alliance with Turkey, Russia, and Austria as a result. Further military losses followed in 1799, when France was defeated on the Italian peninsula, resulting in France losing control over a large portion of Italy itself. France’s internal dissent had not been quelled by these events. A Jacobin coup in June, 1799 resulted in the Directory being taken over by elements loyal to that group. Four months later, Napoleon went back to France and discussed with Emmanuel Sieyes, one of the newly installed directors, a plan for another coup.

This would give Sieyes and Napoleon himself control of a newly constituted government to be known as the Consulate. In this they would be joined by a third man, Pierre-Roger Ducos. From Consul to Emperor Napoleon was able to use his immense skill and knowledge of politics to influence the way in which the new constitution was drawn up. He placed at its head a First Consul, who in all but name was an outright dictator. The constitution allowed the holder of this post to appoint a vast range of men, from generals to ministers, even deciding who would sit in the legislative assemblies. Napoleon himself was to hold the rank of First Consul, and the proposed constitution was accepted in February, 1800. With effective power, Napoleon used his position to launch a wide range of reform. Economic, legal, and educational reforms were at the heart of this program. He also restored the Roman Catholic Church to its former position as France’s official religion. The Napoleonic Code dates from this time. The code banned anyone from being privileged through accident of birth, provided for freedom of religious worship, and required that the handing out of government jobs depend on ability rather than patronage.

Napoleon was also able to negotiate a peace between France and the other countries of Europe. This was broadly welcomed by war-weary Europeans after several years of fighting. By 1802, Napoleon had become highly popular at home and his election as consul for life was close to being a formality. In 1804, he went a step further, arranging for himself to be elected France’s first emperor. By this time, however, the peace he had negotiated had broken down and the United Kingdom, along with Austria and Russia, were once again at war with France. Defeat at Sea; Success on Land Napoleon, who had been brought up in the near-tideless Mediterranean, had a reputation, especially among the British, for not fully understanding the more complex mechanics of naval warfare in the open Atlantic. This reputation was reinforced in October, 1805 when the French fleet was shattered by the brilliance of Admiral Lord Nelson’s tactics at Trafalgar. As a result of this naval disaster, Napoleon was forced to abandon his long-cherished plans for the invasion of England, instead turning back to the European continent.

This approach paid almost immediate dividends, as France scored a great victory over the armies of both Russia and Austria at Austerlitz. Further triumphs on the battlefield were to follow, allowing a further great expansion in the size of Napoleon’s empire. Countries as far apart as Sweden and Spain fell under the rule of France. Napoleon’s phase of great military successes came to an end in 1810, when the empire suffered a sobering series of losses; these came at great cost in both casualties and money. Two years later, his intended invasion of Russia turned into a humiliating and bloody disaster. Napoleon’s Grand Army had originally numbered more than half a million men but, by the end of the Russian campaign, more than 95 percent of these had either been killed or otherwise rendered unfit to fight. Exile and Return Napoleon’s enemies rejoiced at his difficulties, and a coup attempt was made within France itself during the abortive Russian campaign. This failed, but Britain was by then recording significant successes in French territories. Napoleon realized that he no longer possessed the means to mount an effective resistance against his attackers, and on March 30, 1814 he surrendered to the coalition led by the British.

Napoleon himself went into exile, choosing the Tuscan island of Elba. He did not remain there for long, becoming increasingly frustrated at France’s lack of direction. By March 1815, he was convinced that his country could not survive without him. He managed to escape from Elba, reaching Paris in triumph to assume leadership of the empire once again. However, although he had been given a rapturous welcome when he had first returned, this quickly faded, with all the old uncertainties about his style of leadership beginning to surface once again. Despite the worries of many of his compatriots, Napoleon acted aggressively in taking France back to war, moving swiftly through Belgium to win a victory over the Prussians in June. This was to prove the final military success of his extraordinary career: two days later, on the field of Waterloo, he suffered a devastating and decisive defeat. The Seventh Coalition, led by the British Duke of Wellington, inflicted terrible, terrible damage with significant assistance from Prussian soldiers that Napoleon had so recently beaten. Final Years With nowhere left for him to go as a general, Napoleon abdicated as emperor on June 22, 1815.

He attempted to convince the coalition to accept his son, the child Napoleon II, as emperor, but the suggestion was rejected outright by his opponents. Britain, which had been deeply embarrassed by Napoleon’s earlier escape from custody on Elba, decided that this time he should be sent to a much more distant location. They selected the remote island of St. Helena, thousands of miles away from France in the south Atlantic. Although he was a prisoner here, Napoleon was allowed a substantial degree of freedom because of the impossibility of escape from the island. Before long he became weary of the unchanging daily routine of writing and reading, and took to spending much of the day inside. From 1817 onward, his health began to fail, and by the start of 1821 he was confined to his bed. In his will he asked that his ashes be scattered on the banks of the Seine in Paris. He died on May 5, 1821. The cause of death was officially stated to be stomach cancer, the same disease that had accounted for his father.

Napoleon has come to be remembered as one of the most significant generals that Europe has ever produced, although his work in civil matters is generally less acknowledged outside the French-speaking world. In Britain he is largely remembered as a failure due to his defeats by the British at Trafalgar and Waterloo. Nevertheless, the Napoleonic Wars, which bear his name, witness to the fact that for almost a generation this man from Corsica was the single most important figure in Europe. Leave a Reply Napoleon - Emperor, Military Leader - Biography.com quotes “I am never angry when contradicted; I seek to be enlightened.” “I wish my ashes to rest on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of that French people which I have loved so much.

I die before my time, killed by the English oligarchy and its hired assassins.” “A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.” “A great people may be killed, but they will not be intimidated.” “He who fears being conquered is certain of defeat.” “Love does more harm than good.” “A man is not dependent upon his fellow creature, when he does not fear death.” “It is the cause, and not the death that makes the martyr.” “Even when I am gone, I shall remain in people's minds the star of their rights, my name will be the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes.” “Men of genius are meteors, intended to burn to light their century.” “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” “In choosing a wife, a man does not renounce his mother, and still less is he justified with breaking her heart.” “Napoleon wanted to turn Paris into Rome under the Caesars, only with louder music and more marble. And it was done.

His architects gave him the Arc de Triomphe and the Madeleine.” Napoleon Napoleon - Mini Biography (TV-PG; 3:35) Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 in France. He revolutionized military organization and training, sponsored Napoleonic Code, reorganized education and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. He died in 1821 in St. Helena. Synopsis Military general and first emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, France. One of the most celebrated leaders in the history of the West, he revolutionized military organization and training, sponsored Napoleonic Code, reorganized education and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. He died on May 5, 1821, on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Early Years Considered one of the world's greatest military leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, France.

He was the fourth, and second surviving, child of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife, Letizia Ramolino. By the time around Napoleon's birth, Corsica's occupation by the French had drawn considerable local resistance. Carlo Buonaparte had at first supported the nationalists siding with their leader, Pasquale Paoli. But after Paoli was forced to flee the island, Carlo switched his allegiance to the French. After doing so he was appointed assessor of the judicial district of Ajaccio in 1771, a plush job that eventually enabled him to enroll his two sons, Joseph and Napoleon, in France's College d'Autun. Eventually, Napoleon ended up at the military college of Brienne, where he studied for five years, before moving on to the military academy in Paris. In 1785, while Napoleon was at the academy, his father died of stomach cancer. This propelled Napoleon to take the reins as the head of the family. Graduating early from the military academy, Napoleon, now second lieutenant of artillery, returned to Corsica in 1786.

Back home Napoleon got behind the Corsican resistance to the French occupation, siding with his father's former ally, Pasquale Paoli. But the two soon had a falling-out, and when a civil war in Corsica began in April 1793, Napoleon, now an enemy of Paoli, and his family relocated to France, where they assumed the French version of their name: Bonaparte. Rise to Power For Napoleon, the return to France meant a return to service with the French military. Upon rejoining his regiment at Nice in June 1793, the young leader quickly showed his support for the Jacobins, a far-left political movement and the most well-known and popular political club from the French Revolution. It had certainly been a tumultuous few years for France and its citizens. The country was declared a republic in 1792, three years after the Revolution had begun, and the following year King Louis XVI was executed. Ultimately, these acts led to the rise of Maximilien de Robespierre and what became, essentially, the dictatorship of the Committee of Public Safety.

The years of 1793 and 1794 came to be known as the Reign of Terror, in which many as 40,000 people were killed. Eventually the Jacobins fell from power and Robespierre was executed. In 1795 the Directory took control of the country, a power it would it assume until 1799. All of this turmoil created opportunities for ambitious military leaders like Napoleon. After falling out of favor with Robespierre, he came into the good graces of the Directory in 1795 after he saved the government from counter-revolutionary forces. For his efforts, Napoleon was soon named commander of the Army of the Interior. In addition he was a trusted advisor to the Directory on military matters. In 1796, Napoleon took the helm of the Army of Italy, a post he'd been coveting. The army, just 30,000 strong, disgruntled and underfed, was soon turned around by the young military commander. Under his direction the rebuilt army won numerous crucial victories against the Austrians, greatly expanded the French empire and helped make Napoleon the military's brightest star.

His national profile was enhanced by his marriage to Joséphine de Beauharnais, widow of General Alexandre de Beauharnais (guillotined during the Reign of Terror) and the mother of two children. The two were married in a civil ceremony on March 9, 1796. After squashing an internal threat by the royalists, who wished to return France to a monarchy, Napoleon was on the move again, this time to the Middle East to undermine Great Britain's empire by occupying Egypt and disrupting English trade routes to India. But his military campaign proved disastrous. On August 1, 1798, Admiral Horatio Nelson's fleet decimated his forces in the Battle of the Nile. Napoleon's image was greatly harmed by the loss, and in a show of newfound confidence against the commander, Britain, Austria, Russia and Turkey formed a new coalition against France. In the spring of 1799, French armies were defeated in Italy, forcing France to give up much of the peninsula. Inside France itself, unrest continued to ensue, and in June of 1799 a coup resulted in the Jacobins taking control of the Directory. In October, Napoleon returned to France.

Working with one of the new directors, Emmanuel Sieyes, he hatched plans for a second coup that would place the two men, and another, Pierre-Roger Ducos, atop a new government, called the Consulate. First Consul Napoleon's great political skills soon led to a new constitution that created the position of first consul, which amounted to nothing less than a dictatorship. Under the new guidelines the first consul was permitted to appoint ministers, generals, civil servants, magistrates and even members of the legislative assemblies. Napoleon would of course be the one who would fulfill the first consul's duties, and in February 1800 the new constitution was easily accepted. Under his direction Napoleon turned his reforms to other areas of the country, including its economy, legal system and education, and even the Church, as he reinstated Roman Catholicism as the state religion. He also instituted the Napoleonic Code, which forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion and stated that government jobs must be given to the most qualified. Internationally, he negotiated a European peace. Napoleon's reforms proved popular. In 1802 he was elected consul for life, and two years later he was proclaimed emperor of France.

More War Napoleon's negotiated peace with Europe lasted just three years. In 1803 France again returned to war with Britain, and then with Russia and Austria. The British registered an important naval victory against Napoleon in 1805 at Trafalgar, which led Napoleon to scrap his plans to invade England. Instead he set his sights on Austria and Russia, and beat back both militaries in Austerlitz. Other victories soon followed, allowing Napoleon to greatly expand the French empire, paving the way for loyalists to his government to be installed in Holland, Italy, Naples, Sweden, Spain and Westphalia. Changes were also afoot in Napoleon's personal life. In 1810 he arranged for the annulment of his marriage to Joséphine, who was unable to give him a son, so that he could marry Marie-Louise, the 18-year-old daughter of the emperor of Austria. The couple had a son, Napoleon II (a.k.a. the King of Rome) on March 20, 1811.

Napoleon's military success, however, soon gave way to broader defeats, beginning in 1810, when France suffered a string of losses that tapped the country's military budget. In 1812 France was devastated when its invasion of Russia turned out to be a colossal failure in which scores of soldiers in Napoleon's Grand Army were killed or badly wounded. Out of an original fighting force of some 600,000 men, just 10,000 soldiers were still fit for battle. News of the defeat reinvigorated Napoleon's enemies, both inside and outside of France. A failed coup was attempted while Napoleon led his charge against Russia, while the British began to advance through French territories. With international pressure mounting and his government lacking the resources to fight back against his enemies, Napoleon surrendered to allied forces on March 30, 1814. He went into exile on the island of Elba. Return to Power Napoleon's exile did not last long. He watched as France stumbled forward without him. In March 1815 he escaped the island and quickly made his way to Paris, where he triumphantly returned to power.

But the enthusiasm that greeted Napoleon when he resumed control of the government soon gave way to old frustrations and fears about his leadership. Napoleon immediately led his country back into battle. He led troops into Belgium and defeated the Prussians on June 16, 1815. But then, two days later, at Waterloo, he was defeated in a raging battle against British, who were reinforced by Prussian fighters. Napoleon once again suffered a humiliating loss. Later Years On June 22, 1815, he abdicated his powers. In an effort to prolong his dynasty, Napoleon pushed to have his young son, Napoleon II, named emperor, but the coalition rejected the offer. Additionally, fearing a repeat of his earlier return from exile, the British government sent him to the remote island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic. For the most part Napoleon was free to do as he pleased at his new home. He had leisurely mornings, wrote often and read a lot. But the routine of life soon got to him, and he often shut himself indoors. His health began to deteriorate, and by 1817 he showed the early signs of a stomach ulcer or possibly cancer.

By early 1821 he was bedridden and growing weaker by the day. In April of that year, he dictated his last will: "I wish my ashes to rest on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of that French people which I have loved so much. I die before my time, killed by the English oligarchy and its hired assassins." Napoleon died on May 5, 1821. Videos BBC - iWonder - Napoleon Bonaparte: The Little Corporal who built an Empire Napoleon Bonaparte: The Little Corporal who built an Empire 1769 1821Death in exile The Napoleon complex Diminutive in stature but towering in influence – few figures in history stand taller than Napoleon Bonaparte. Loved by his men, feared by his foes, the Duke of Wellington claimed he was worth 40,000 men on the battlefield. From outsider to emperor, trace Napoleon's meteoric rise to greatness – and find out how he was brought crashing back down to earth.

1769 Birth and early life DeAgostini/Getty Images Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, had been active in Paoli's resistance army but made terms with the French. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica on 15 August. The occupying French forces who ran the island had acquired it from Genoa the year before. Though well off by local standards, Napoleon's parents were not rich, and their vigorous claims of noble descent fail to stand up to scrutiny. His mother Letizia and father Carlo were part of Corsica's bourgeoisie. Once involved in the Corsican resistance to French occupation, Carlo had made personal peace with the French when leader Pasquale Paoli was forced to flee and became assessor to the royal court. Little in the context of Napoleon's birth hinted at his remarkable future. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Napoleon attended the military school at Brienne for five years. Aged nine, Napoleon left for school in France. He was an outsider, unversed in the customs and traditions of his new home. Always destined for the military, Napoleon was educated first, briefly, at Autun, then five years in Brienne before a final year at the military academy in Paris.

He graduated in September 1785 – ranked 42nd in a class of 58. It was while he was in Paris that Napoleon's father died, leaving the family facing financial hardship. Not yet 16, nor even the eldest son, it was nonetheless Napoleon who assumed responsibility as head of the family. 1786-1788 Photo12/UIG via Getty Images Corsican resistance leader Pasquale Paoli. Napoleon took his first commission, as a 2nd lieutenant of artillery. He read voraciously – on military strategy and tactics – determined to succeed. But his native land still had his heart. In his book Lettres sur la Corse he set out his vision for an independent Corsica, free of French control. In September he returned to the island of his birth, not rejoining his regiment until June 1788. Above all else, Napoleon felt, he was a Corsican. I was born when [Corsica] was perishing.

Thirty thousand Frenchmen spewed onto our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood… Napoleon Bonaparte, writing to Pasquale Paoli 1793 Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images Napoleon succeeded in driving the British from Toulon. It wasn't long before Napoleon had the opportunity to demonstrate his new loyalty. At Toulon he won the first major military victory of his career. French anti-government forces had handed the port over to British troops. It was essential that the town be recaptured. Strategically important, the damage suffered to the prestige of the Revolution was just as significant. Napoleon was entrusted with breaking the resistance and by mid-December his tactics had forced the British to evacuate. Days later, Napoleon was promoted to brigadier general – he was just 24 years old. 1794 Saviour of the Republic Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images Napoleon's defeat of the royalist forces threatening the National Convention built his prestige to new heights. When a royalist revolt in Paris threatened to overthrow the government, it fell to Napoleon – the liberator of Toulon – to save the Republic.

Facing a force of more than 20,000 men, Napoleon was massively outnumbered. But when the royalists descended on the National Convention in Paris on 5 October, Napoleon's troops forced them back. In less than an hour, 300 royalists lay dead. Not only had Napoleon saved the republic, but his exploits won him ever greater standing among the politicians running the new regime – the Directory. His upward trajectory was increasing. 1796 Soldiers, you are naked, badly fed.…Rich provinces and great towns will be in your power, and in them you will find honour, glory, wealth. Napoleon Bonaparte, addressing his new Italian troops in 1796 1798 Land of the pharaohs Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images Napoleon won the Battle of the Pyramids but Nelson's destruction of the French fleet trapped his men in Egypt. Britain alone now stood against France. Napoleon's next move took him to Egypt. He hoped to force a peace with Britain by striking at the source of her wealth. By disrupting trade routes to India, Napoleon thought he could build a French empire in the east.

But at the Battle of the Nile, a young British admiral, Horatio Nelson, ensured this dream would not become a reality. With the French fleet destroyed, 35,000 men under Napoleon’s command were trapped, unable to travel back to France. Universal History Archive/Getty Images Emmanuel Sieyes was instrumental in Napoleon's elevation. A new coalition, including Britain and Russia, was formed to continue fighting the French. The turning tide led to disturbances in France itself. One of France's new directors, Emmanuel Sieyes, was convinced that only a stronger executive with military presence could prevent a reinstatement of the monarchy. Seeing an opportunity, Napoleon left his men behind in Egypt and returned to France. By the time he arrived in Paris, victories in Switzerland and Holland had averted immediate danger of a restoration but Sieyes and Napoleon launched their coup anyway. Named as first consul, Napoleon was now leading the greatest power in Europe. I am looking for a sabre. Emmanuel Sieyes, prior to Napoleon's appointment to the consulate 1799-1804 The Battle of the Three Emperors Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images Napoleon visits his soldiers on the eve of the Battle of Austerlitz.

At Austerlitz, in the modern day Czech Republic, Napoleon won the greatest victory of his career. Facing a force of Austrian and Russian troops that heavily outnumbered his own, Napoleon laid a trap for his enemies. When all was said and done, 26,000 of the enemy troops had been killed, wounded or captured. By contrast, Napoleon lost only 9,000 men. His resounding success not only forced Austria to make peace again, it also cemented his reputation as the greatest military leader of the age. The upstart emperor had defeated two of the most established imperial dynasties of Europe. 1806-1809 The blockade and the peninsula Universal History Archive/Getty Images From 1809, British forces in the Iberian Peninsula were led by Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington After the Battle of Trafalgar, any hopes Napoleon had harboured of launching a full-scale invasion and forcing peace with Britain were extinguished. Again, he tried to strangle Britain's economy. Trade with Britain was forbidden, and every ship bound to or from there declared a fair prize. He hoped the blockade would spark unrest in Britain and force her to sue for peace.

The Portuguese could not comply – it would have meant economic ruin. Napoleon forced the point and occupied the Iberian Peninsula. Spain and Portugal revolted, enabling British troops led by Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, to gain a foothold in Europe. Charlemagne's heir Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images New wife Marie-Louise gave Napoleon what Josephine could not, a son to inherit the empire he'd built. Despite failures in Spain and Portugal, Napoleon was at his zenith – his empire swelled to include Holland, parts of Germany and almost all of Italy. Napoleon considered himself Charlemagne's heir, but it was an heir of his own he needed most, a son to inherit his empire. He reluctantly divorced Josephine in 1810 and married Marie-Louise, daughter of the Austrian emperor, Francis I, recently defeated once more at Napoleon's hands. In March, he had a son. His legacy appeared to have been secured. The 'King of Rome', as his son was titled, was named after his father. Rischgitz/Getty Images When Napeolon arrived in France, troops sent to arrest him defected and joined him.

Broken in the east, Austrian and Prussian re-entry into the war drove Napoleon from central Europe. His empire was crumbling around him. On 30 March, allied armies advanced on Paris. Napoleon abdicated a week later. Once sovereign of a continent, Napoleon was confined to the island of Elba. Louis XVIII was placed on the French throne. All seemed lost. Yet Napoleon observed with interest the growing discontent in France restoration had prompted. Less than a year after his exile, Napoleon launched a daring bid for escape. By 20 March 1815 he was back in Paris once again. 1815 PBS - Napoleon: The Man and the Myth Napoleon Bonaparte was born the 15th of August, 1769 on Corsica, just three months after the island had been defeated by the French. He would spend his childhood hating France, the nation he would one day rule. "I was born when [Corsica] was perishing. Thirty thousand Frenchmen spewed on to our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood...

The cries of the dying, the groans of the oppressed and tears of despair surrounded my cradle from the hour of my birth." After the French victory, many Corsican rebels fled to the mountains, where they continued to fight on. But Napoleons father Carlo, a twenty-three year-old university student, readily submitted to French rule. Soon he was wearing powdered wigs, embroidered waistcoats, and silver buckled shoes. The Bonapartes were Corsican aristocrats, but they were not rich. With eight children, they struggled just to get by on an island that had been impoverished for centuries. Napoleon never forgave his father for betraying his Corsican heritage. He would later say harshly that Carlo was rather "too fond of pleasure." His mother, Letizia, was a hard, austere woman, toughened by war, who punished her children to teach them sacrifice and discipline. "She sometimes made me go to bed without supper, as if there were nothing to eat in the house. One had to learn to suffer and not let others see it." As a representative of the Corsican parliament, Carlo travelled to Versailles.

There, he saw the splendor of the French court in all its majesty, and he worked to secure Napoleon a scholarship to Brienne, a private academy in France. Napoleon set foot in France for the first time in the winter of 1778, a thin, sallow nine year-old, accustomed to the warmth of the Mediterranean, suddenly alone on the windswept plains of northern France. He could hardly speak French. JOURQUIN : He thinks of himself as a Corsican. He is surrounded by students who are the children of French aristocrats. And they have nothing in common with this little foreigner. And since he is quite proud, he becomes a loner. CARRINGTON : When he was in school in Brienne in continental France, where he was very much laughed at and bullied for being a barbarous Corsican, he dreamt all the time of liberating Corsica. But he did something quite exceptional. He conquered his conquerors. He got the better of the French. At the age of fifteen Napoleon was promoted to the Royal Military Academy in Paris. At sixteen, he began his apprenticeship as a lowly second lieutenant, training with the best artillery unit in the French army.

His ambitions soared far beyond a military career, but in French society power and achievement was reserved for the nobility  not for an unsophisticated Corsican soldier. "Always alone among men, I come home to dream by myself and to give myself over to all the forces of my melancholy," Napoleon wrote. "My thoughts dwell on death... What fury drives me to wish for my own destruction? No doubt because I see no place for myself in this world." Then the French Revolution changed everything. Bonaparte was twenty-three when he took leave of absence from the French army and returned to Corsica an idealistic revolutionary. The French Republic had made Corsica a part of France, and given Corsicans all the rights and liberties of French citizens. Bonaparte, a lieutenant in the islands National Guard, threw himself into Corsican politics. Bonaparte soon became the leader of a faction opposed to the islands governor Pasquale Paoli. The Corsican patriot thought Bonaparte too ambitious, too self-centered, too sympathetic to France. WOLOCH : Bonaparte and Paoli are on totally different wavelengths. Paoli retains the idea that Corsica should be independent.

By this time Napoleon Bonaparte is perfectly comfortable with a Corsica that is part of revolutionary France. Clan rivalry ran deep on the island, intensifying the political struggle between the two men. Paolis partisans and Bonapartes were soon at war. In the end, Paoli proved too strong. Bonapartes home was sacked and he was forced to flee to the mountains. The Corsican Assembly declared Bonaparte and his entire family "traitors and enemies of the Fatherland, condemned to perpetual execration and infamy." Bonaparte no longer had the right to live in Corsica. He had been given a death sentence by his own people. On June 10, 1793 he set sail for France with his widowed mother, three brothers and three sisters  a refugee family carrying with them all they owned in the world. Twenty-four years old, he was banished from the land of his birth forever. Template without comments Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, on the island of Corsica, on Aug. 15, 1769. It was by chance that the future ruler of France was born a French citizen.

His family had migrated to Corsica from the Italian mainland in the 16th century. The island had been transferred from the Republic of Genoa to France one year before Napoleon's birth. His christening name was Italian. It was spelled Napoleone Buonaparte. As a boy he hated the French, whom he considered oppressors of his native land. Napoleon was stationed in Paris in 1792. The French Revolution had been raging for three bloody years. It reached a climax on Aug. 10, 1792, with the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a French Republic. This was a decisive event in Napoleon's life, for it gave him his opportunity to get ahead. (See also French Revolution .) Most of the French officers had remained faithful to the king. Napoleon, however, viewed the Revolution with an open mind. The new republic was faced with foreign and civil war. It desperately needed able and loyal officers. In the "little Corsican" it found a willing recruit. In 1792 Napoleon was made a captain. In 1793 he was chosen to direct the artillery in the siege of Toulon.

This was an important French port whose citizens had rebelled against the republic. Here he first showed his qualities as a soldier and as a leader of men. During the war against Europe, Napoleon continued to demonstrate his prowess as a general. He had many successes, most notably annexing part of Italy for France Napoleon's return from Italy to Paris was a triumph. No other general of the Revolution had received such a welcome. He now began to think of political as well as military power. He persuaded the willing Directory to send him and a large army to Egypt. There he expected to duplicate the exploits of Alexander the Great by winning an eastern empire that would include Egypt, India,and other Middle- and Far-East lands. He was unsuccessful in this veture, and abandoned his troops to go back to France for the militaty coup against the Directory in 1799. For more on the battle in Egypt click here. For more on the coup click here . Napoleon was one of three consuls in the post-coup government, but was qucickly declared first cousul for life, and had a lot of political power. In 1804 he had secured a popular vote changing the French government from a consulate to an empire.

As "emperor of the French" he assumed the right to hand down the throne to his descendants. He had created an empire. For information about Napoleon and Les Miserables click here . To see some other images and read about the controversy surrounding Napoleon as a general click here . Monuments that Napoleon erected in Paris: click here for The Elephant click here for L'Arc de Triomphe Napoléon Bonaparte - IMDb IMDb Writer Napoléon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica, France as Napoleone di Buonaparte. He was a writer, known for Le mémorial de Sainte-Hélène (1911). He was married to Marie Louise von Österreich and Joséphine de Beauharnais. He died on May 5, 1821 in Longwood, Saint Helena Island.

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Question: On which island was Napoleon Bonaparte born in 1769?
Answer: Corsica